Timo Glock said he faced a huge struggle to bring his Marussia home in 12th position at the Singapore Grand Prix after hitting the wall early in the race.

The result was significant for the team as it is now ahead of rivals Caterham in the constructors' championship by virtue of a higher finishing position. If the team can hold on to tenth until the end of the season it should benefit financially under the terms of the next Concorde Agreement, but Glock revealed it was a close run thing.

"It's fantastic," he said. "I knew I had a chance against Caterham if we stayed close in the first stint and that's what I tried. For some reason my rear tyres dropped a bit and I touched the wall and I thought the race was over as the toe on the rear right was definitely slightly out.

"Every time I had a left-hand corner I had massive problems, but in the end I kept pushing and just didn't want to give up. I had to save the car in every left-hand corner and at the end I think I did 40 laps on the prime tyres, which is incredible for us. I just managed to keep the pace up and just the last lap was very difficult with the rear tyres dropping off massively. It's great for the team, it's paid off slowly and I think what we have achieved in the last three or four months in terms of development it's great for the team."

Team principal John Booth said the result was the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by the team.

"Overall, this has been a day where, with everything thrown at them, the engineers and mechanics executed everything perfectly. Really though, the improvement in the raw pace of the car has come from all the hard work that has been undertaken in Banbury and by our engine partner Cosworth in Northampton."